“Gretchen,” she answered, clutching the sheet to her naked body.
“No offense, Gretchen, but what happened last night?”
“Last night?”
“Did I have a lot to drink?”
She shook her head, but he sensed she wasn’t answering him; she didn’t understand what he was asking.
“Drunk. Was I drunk?” He didn’t feel hungover, he felt like he’d entered an alternate universe—one in which he couldn’t remember where he was or even his own name.
Before she could respond, he heard the hotel room door open. He spun around to give housekeeping a piece of his mind for entering without knocking, but instead of a hotel maid, someone else he didn’t recognize stood in the doorway.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Your worst fucking nightmare,” answered the man dressed like a damn al-Qaeda terrorist.
Chapter 20
Mantis and Alegria
“I don’t understand,” Mantis said for the third time to the nurse who continued to insist Manon Mondreau was no longer a patient in their hospital. “She couldn’t have just gotten up and walked out.” He cringed at the flippant remark. No, she couldn’t have, because she was paralyzed from the waist down, but that wasn’t what he meant.
“Mr. Cassman,” said a familiar voice.
Mantis spun around to face the doctor he’d seen several hours earlier.
“Where is she?”
“HIPPA prevents me from divulging that information.”
“No. It doesn’t. I’m her medical power of attorney. Check her chart.”
“Her power of attorney was changed.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You are no longer listed.”
“Who is?”
The doctor glared at him and folded his arms. “I can’t answer that.”
Mantis stomped off and then turned around and came back. “Were her parents here?”
“There’s nothing more I can tell you,” the doctor responded, walking away.
Mantis didn’t bother following him. Instead he called Doc. “I’m at Stamford Hospital,” he told him, and Alegria is not. They won’t tell me anything other than she’s no longer a patient. I need to find her.”
“Roger that,” said Doc, without asking any questions.
“Can you help me?”
“Of course. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
“Any word on Dutch?”
“Negative.”